What is a 30 Minute Social Session?
30 Minute Social Sessions are my tested recommendations to help solopreneurs take the overwhelming feeling out of social media marketing. For each session, I’ll show you easy ways to add social media into your already crazy busy day.
Each session will show you steps you can do once a week for 30 minutes to help you grow your social media presence and to get your message heard by the people who want to buy your stuff.
This Month’s 30 Minute Social Session: FACEBOOK
In my blog post about Finding Your Inner Social Media-ness, I admitted to being on the Facebook roller coaster. One month, I’m up and the next two months, I’m down. Instead of scratching my head and wondering what happened, I decided to try out some ideas and make things happen.
A timer is your best friend
I want you to find a timer that works for you so you can do these steps in 30 minutes or less. I like to use this timer because I can see the time left in the browser’s tab and I don’t need to keep checking the browser page to check my remaining time: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown-timer/
You can use this one or an app on your phone or even an egg timer from your kitchen (did I just show my age?). Whatever you choose to use, just keep it near your desk so you can stay on track with your time.
30 Minute Blocks of Time
Each 30 Minute Social Session is about taking productive tasks and breaking them down into focused blocks of time. I scheduled these Facebook 30 Minute Social Sessions once a week into my calendar.
I actually blocked off the time like I would for a meeting or when I have a coaching call. After a month of testing these steps, I saw an increase in my engagement on my Facebook fan page as well as more Likes to my posts.
I tested two different combinations for my 30 minute block of time.
Combo 1: 2 blocks of 15 minutes
For this session, I set the timer for 15 minutes and did the following steps:
1. First 15 minute segment:
I checked my fan page’s Insights. To access this information, go to the admin panel of your fan page. Look for the tab that says Insights and click on that button.
Then I started tracking the activity in my Facebook posts. I used a word document but you can set up a spread sheet or just write it out on a piece of paper. Use whatever is most comfortable for you as you’ll need to pull this information together every week. It needs to be easy or if you’re like me, you’ll find every excuse not to do it.
Log into your Facebook fan page Insights and answer the following questions:
- What were your top 5 posts for the week?
- What time of day were they posted?
- What day of the week were they posted?
- What was the topic or message of these posts?
- Did you add a video, photo or ask a question?
2. Second 15 minute segment:
Set the timer for another 15 minutes and do these steps:
I changed my profile to Use Facebook as {the name of your fan page}. To do this, go back to the main admin panel and click on the Edit Page tab. You’ll see the option to use Facebook as your fan page so just click on that feature. You’ll notice the image at the top change to the profile picture of your fan page.
Then I used my 15 minutes to comment and like on other fan pages I was following AS my company, not as me. When you use Facebook as your company, you can engage with other business owners representing your business. Your comments and likes will show up as your business and this allows others to see your company name doing more than just posting messages.
You can also use this time to find other business fan pages for your company to follow. You may need to do this step first – click like to follow other businesses – if you don’t have any posts in your home feed when you switch over to Using Facebook as your company. When you click the LIKE button as your business, these fan pages will now show up in your home feed.
Combo 2: 3 blocks of 10 minutes
For this session, I set the timer for 10 minutes and did the following steps:
1. First 10 minute segment:
I checked my fan page’s Insights. Using my list above, I did a quick check of my Insights and made notes of what patterns were starting to emerge of my fans.
2. Second 10 minute segment:
Set the timer for another 10 minutes and switched over to using Facebook as my fan page. The timer really helped me stay on track and not get sucked down the Facebook rabbit hole. I’d make a couple of comments, hit lots of likes and even found a few posts to share with my fans.
2. Third 10 minute segment:
Set the timer for another 10 minutes and schedule a couple of posts to show up later in the week. When I moved around Facebook as my company, I’d find some cool things I knew my fans wanted to know about.
Most days I already had a post scheduled so I didn’t want to hit the share button. I used this last block of 10 minutes to schedule links or events from other businesses, making sure that I tagged the business in my post so they could still get the Facebook back link.
What did I learn?
I did these Facebook 30 Minute Social Session once a week for a full month. During those four weeks, I learned quite a bit about how to be more efficient with my time.
1. I learned that a timer stopped me from using Facebook personally to see what my friends were doing. I knew I was in there for my company so I stuck to the steps that I detailed above.
2. I discovered that once I started doing the steps, I moved through the process quicker each time I did it. That’s why the second combo popped up. I figured out how to quickly scan my Insights so it gave me some time to schedule in a few posts to share information from other companies that I thought my fans might like.
3. My engagement with my fans increased. Because I checked my Insights every week, I started to see a pattern emerge about when they saw my posts. I dropped posting on first few days of the week and concentrated more on Thursday and Friday.
I also discovered that more of my fans responded to my posts on the weekend. Before doing these steps, I rarely posted on the weekend but by watching the patterns in my Insights, I knew both days on the weekends were a good time to reach people. I also learned what TIME to post and which type of content increased my engagement with them.
4. I felt more like a part of my Facebook community. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own world that we forget that other businesses are out there that we can connect with to help us grow our companies.
Using the feature of Using Facebook as your company even for that short period of time each week helped me feel more connected. Honestly, I hit the Like button more than I commented. I believe in only commenting when I can contribute something to the conversation so if I agreed with something, I usually just click the Like button.
Overall, I felt that my Facebook 30 Minute Social Session was a success. I learned a lot about how to increase the engagement with my fans, I paid more attention to what was going on in my community and I found some really great content to share. And all of this for just doing these steps for 30 minutes a week!
Post your comments!
I opened up the comments section for this page so let me know how the Facebook 30 Minute Social Sessions works for you. Feel free to ask questions or just share your experiences with these steps.
And stay tuned for the next 30 Minute Social Sessions where I’ll review how to use your Google Analytics to monitor your website traffic.